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When the people’s voice is silenced, what options remain?
Dear Editor,
I have been in the political hustings shortly after the Waddington constitution was implemented in 1953, I have served at several levels as a trade unionist and political activist, and witnessed the trauma and trials of the cold war and the march to Independence, and never left Guyana for a number of complex reasons. Never before have I witnessed an administration as stubborn, and relying on propaganda techniques reminiscent of those employed by Joseph Stalin, Senator Joseph MacCarthy and Adolf Hitler’s Joseph Goebbels.
In Guyana we have had the infamous “black clothes” repressive episodes, remember the assassination of Minister Satyadeow Sawh and others. We have lived through the trauma of the arson of the home of Permanent Secretary Aurthur Abraham which took his life and also the lives of seven of his children. We have had the Son Chapman explosion which took the lives of forty-seven people, travelling from Georgetown to Wismar.
There were the maginot lines in parts of Guyana, then peace was restored in the mid-1960s. Fast-track to Guyana today, on paper we are per capita, the richest in the world, but yet there is poverty and the rising cost of living and an exchange rate that has not changed in spite of the advent of massive oil and gas production and huge extraction of gold, believe it or not.
Last month we had the unfortunate sinking of the MV Barima, numerous lives were lost, after “shadow-boxing” by our administration, without even the facade of some modicum of consultation, a five-man commission of inquiry was named, ostensibly to ascertain the factors that led to the Barima tragedy.
Yet, to our amazement three persons were charged with seventy-two counts of the capital offense murder. So, before the commission of inquiry could begin its deliberations, an important aspect of any inquiry was predetermined, that is who caused the deaths of seventy-two odd persons, believe it, or not. Then, ignoring editorials and writings in the independent media, it appears as though it is business as usual. In every democracy there would have been bigger and more robust public demonstrations and protest on the streets, but of course we heard one idiot purporting to speak on behalf of a political party, stating that street protests are not an option. Believe it or not.
I ask what other options are available if those in control and pulling the strings of the puppets seem oblivious to the pleas and pleadings of suffering citizens. The old Latin phrase “vox populi vox dei, the voice of the people is the voice of God, is relevant. People let’s hear your voices, from the Pakaraimas to the Corentyne coast, the words written by Cleveland Hamilton music composed by Frank Daniels.
Sincerely,
Elder Hamilton Green
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HG we are still lucky to have you , energetic & eloquent!!!